OFFSHORE ACTION ON THE CHARTER SPORTFISHING BOAT PRIME TIME

Oct. 2, 2005, Josh Temple, Prime Time Adventures, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico Fishing Report:

ESPN is flew down to Cow Town, and Larry with the El Pescador offers to hook us up since my leg was kaput.

Fishing on day one, we steam out of Puerto Vallarta to the bank at a comfortable 15 knots. The Pescador is a Delta hull so it's a sweet ride even in poopy seas. Everyone is stoked but it doesn't take long before the rolling sloopy chop slams the hammer down on half the camera crew and the guest angler.

We get to the bank and it's less than comfortable with 6-8 footers and around 20 knots of wind. We try to make big baits but no suerte so we go to the caballitos and to make a long story short we scrape out 2 dorado, 1 tuna, and a rainbow runner which we bridle up and use for bait. No takers, not exactly the type of action we're known for.

Fishing out of Puerto Vallarta on day two, at El Banco. We'd been fishing it for almost 5 weeks straight with the green water hanging around and my instincts told me it was time for a change. We had one day left with the cameras rolling so it was time to introduce the boys to cow town.

At 5 miles from cow town, Puerto Vallarta fishing water is teeming with life. We stop on a massive hectare of boiling skippies and load up every available rod with bait. We pin 6 up and start our first tack down the ridge.

After 6 hours of fruitless trolling, some of the guys start peeling off into the comfort of the air conditioned cabin.

Well, one bait gets detonated...then another bait gets detonated...then another. I jumped into action as a triple header of giant tuna catapulted through our spread.

We miss one but we've got 2 giants ripping line in opposite directions.

Well needless to say we pull it off again and the fish gods save the day with some unbelievable footage of just what can happen when you stick and stay and make it pay.

Next up fishing, it's Avet, Sarkis and Harry Alajajyan, and Rick Ozaki.

We head out fishing on day one and Puerto Vallarta seas are pretty gnarly again.

Just after lunch we had a great shot as a massive fish boiled up on the short bait chasing it from one side of the stern to the other but somehow didn't eat the bait.

The left rigger gets absolutely DETONATED on, but somehow the hook misses the fish and that's it for the rest of the day.

Fishing the next morning, we head back to cow town and Harry scores a 170 and whoops it in less than 20 minutes on the new Avet 50's that he's brought down for us. Then Rick Ozaki scores his 10th personal tuna over 200 with a 230 that he whoops in under 45 minutes on the Avet 50W. We're in the groove.

Puerto Vallarta fishing day 3 starts off with a bang as we're trolling a spread of 3 baits when the left long CATAPULTS over 8 feet in the air doing a perfect back flip and almost makes it back into the water but a HUGE cow cracks the bait hard on the way down but misses it and smacks it back into the air and then WHOOSH detonates on it again before finally inhaling it in a massive frothing boil.

We've got the fish on one of the new prototype Avet 30's that Sarkis and Harry brought down for us. The reel is buttoned up fully to over 38 pounds of drag and Sarkis settles in for a real demon fight.

In just less than an hour we stick the fish with the flier and it's obvious when it takes all 4 of us to drag it over the rail that we've got a real one. Back on our digital scale the fish goes 279.7 pounds and it's Sarkis' biggest cow to date.

We put more baits out and it doesn't take long, this time a big black around 400 pounds rips up the surface and Harry gets it to the boat in just over 15 mins on the Avet 30. Then we score another big black this one slightly bigger.

Fishing next with Clarke Smith, we head out of Puerto Vallarta on the first morning on mostly calm seas.

We get out there and make bait right away and the next 6 hours can only be described as madness. It's a fight between the giant marlin and tuna to see who can engulf our baits first. The marlin win hands down as one after another we hook black marlin averaging 400 to 600 pounds.

A fish just rips the surface up, and it's a big one, at least 600 pounds. Clarke does a fantastic job of whipping the beast and in less than 20 minutes we have the fish boat side ready to put a satellite pop up tag in.

Somehow a big tuna makes it past the marlin and Clarke wastes no time in grinding in a 225 pound class fish which we decide to release.

By this time the flat calm seas we enjoyed on the way out have turned into a frothing savage fury. One of the arms from hurricane Otis have reached us.

The next fishing day it's still nasty and the bait is all but impossible to catch. We do manage to make a few and Clarke scores a 175 pound class fish that gets "released" as we go to sunset and pull the hook at the boat.

Yesterday we started off fishing with a group that we finish up with tomorrow and we're off to a great start with a 260 pounder, a wahoo that I actually caught on 20 pound mono while jigging for skippies, and a few sailfish that are starting to stack up out there.

The water is FINALLY blue again and the fishing is just epic.

We start tomorrow on a run of 17 days straight.

(See "Mexico Fishing News" online for current fishing reports, photos, weather, and water temperatures from Puerto Vallarta and other major Mexican sportfishing areas. Vacation travel articles, fishing maps and seasonal calendars, and fishing related information for Puerto Vallarta may be found at Mexfish.com's main Puerto Vallarta page.